Verizon Launches Actifio-Powered Data Backup Service

The service handles backup for virtualized infrastructures with colocation, hosting, off-premises servers and other public clouds.

Verizon, elbowing itself into the cloud services market against Amazon, IBM Softlayer, Microsoft, Google and a raft of others, is adding new enterprise-level functionality to its features lineup.
The latest is data backup with an intentional emphasis on copy data management. The giant telecom's Enterprise Solutions division revealed May 11 that it has joined with Boston-based storage provider Actifio to launch its new cloud backup service.
This service will support customers using virtualized infrastructures—including a combination of co-location, hosting, off-premises servers and other public clouds—to enable a unified hybrid cloud environment in which data is easy to manage and protect, Verizon said.
Actifio's platform for Verizon controls copy data, which is everything that is not currently being used in production. Actifio pioneered this approach with its copy data virtualization (CDV) several years ago, but it is now provided by multiple vendors.

Actifo's CDV applies the same virtualization approach to data it did with servers more than a dozen years ago. It frees data from the use case-defined silos of infrastructure that characterize older-generation data management architectures, enabling enterprises to better use their apps, according to the company.

The service provides users with a list of how many copies of documents exist, where they are located, who can access them and other information not available from other backup services.
According to the companies, the service includes all of Actifio's capabilities, giving them more control to:
Manage: Makes it easy to move data back and forth between the customer premise and Verizon's cloud-based infrastructure, so application workloads can be allocated wherever it makes the most sense.
Access: Allows for self-serve instant access to data while enhancing data control, enabling higher-quality applications to be developed faster.
Protect: Improves resiliency and availability by protecting data across all use cases, allowing customers to improve internal service level agreements while reducing cost, risk and complexity.
"Data is the lifeblood of business, and it's essential to have access to the data and applications you need when and where you need them," said Ash Ashutosh, founder and CEO of Actifio. "This next step in our relationship with Verizon will enable us to provide exactly that to more customers around the world, more easily and efficiently than ever before."
Verizon Premise to Cloud Backup service is slated to be available in June in North America with availability in Europe and Asia-Pacific expected by the fall.

Chris Preimesberger is Editor of Features and Analysis at eWEEK. Twitter: @editingwhiz